John Hickenlooper on Principles & Values

Operate government with more common sense and less nonsense

I took what you might call an unconventional path into running for office. I started out here in Colorado as a geologist. During a downturn, everyone in our company got laid off.

Next thing I knew I was making beer and starting a brewpub business.
It turned out pretty well. But as every small business person knows, it's not easy out there, especially when bureaucracy gets in the way.

I didn't run for public office until I was 50. Before that, I'd never run for anything. Not even in high school. I ran for public office as a small businessman. I thought government needed to operate with more common sense and less nonsense.
So while we have been doing all we can to make it as easy as possible for business to succeed in Colorado we also have been streamlining the state government, making it more efficient.

Coloradoans' resilience due to shared values, community

We will come through this rough time. We'll do it by working together in the best tradition of the West. Like every river runner knows, when you get into rough water everybody paddles. There's a Yiddish word, 'landsman' which, roughly translated means 'a
fellow villager'--a stranger, perhaps, but still someone you welcome because you know they share a common connection in the village of your ancestors. This value doesn't spring from government. But it can teach all of us to govern together.